The Ugliness of Force

January 29, 2002

February 3-New York City police have been quietly savoring a public
relations victory this weekend as they’ve so far corralled demonstrators at
the World Economic Forum and kept property destruction to a minimum.

But that doesn’t mean their work has been pretty-or peaceful. These photos
capture the scene that erupted today after 20 or so demonstrators began
marching against traffic up Third Avenue in lower Manhattan. Cops quickly
moved in, as if they knew the protesters were coming. As the blues poured
in and the billy clubs started flying, the crowd swelled to some 200
activists, who broke off into impromptu games of Ring-Around-the-Rosie,
chanted the familiar refrain of “Whose streets? Our Streets” and refused
orders to get out of the road and onto the sidewalk.

Police began making arrests, wrapping activists’ wrists with plastic cuffs
and putting people on paddy wagons. Since the Forum began last week, the
official arrest tally has risen to 46-a much smaller number than activist
and law enforcement insiders anticipated. At 6:30 p.m., the NYPD didn’t have a full count of those picked up today,
but in a press release activists said 60 people were arrested and one
person knocked unconscious. Later reports brought the arrest total citywide to 154.

Today’s civil disobedience may provide a prelude for demonstrations tonight
and tomorrow, as activists move away from the heavy police presence near
the Forum’s headquarters at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and create
spontaneous disturbances around the city. They seem to be enjoying the game
of cat and mouse. Some this afternoon were heard joking they’d make the
cops miss the Super Bowl.

If the folks in blue do miss the game, at least they’ll have been paid
well. Early estimates of overtime cost to the city have run as high as $11
million.

‘The World Trade Center was conceived by vested interests, promoted by pressure groups, brought into being by a handful of powerful men for reasons of monetary gain or personal pressure, and indirectly subsidized by the taxpayer’